New To E-Commerce

[jahmoo]

Hi All,

As usual, not really looked around or made any searches, but I would appreciate some links to some answers I need.

Myself and Partner(Wife) are looking at putting a website together, new business venture. But with very little experience in web building we have been looking at some sites that help you and host the site for you.

I have done some homework and got this down to 3 sites.

Bigcommerce
Shopify
Volusion

Any one have any experience in using these sites?

Thank you from a newbie

jahmoo

 

[seoswat]

To be honest i would recommend Big Commerce out of those 3, I have used them all, Volusion tries to build its business by trying to convince customers they are better than Big Commerce when in fact they are clearly lacking in some very simple code stability.

My agency tends to work with either Magento (steep learning curve - but can do pretty much anything you want) and Big Commere. (much simpler interface and quicker to make simple changes)

The good thing about Big Commerce is that anyone can use it to get a basic eCommerce website set up.

If you wanted a bit of customisation doing then thats not going to break the bank either as the code is layered out in easy to read and update modules.

Only downside to Big Commerce for brand new start ups is that is comes with a low monthly cost, i say downside as depending on how you market the site i.e SEO, Social Media, Forums, Videos etc you might spend a couple of months making a loss.

 

[jahmoo]

Thanks for reply seoswat.

I appreciate it will take a couple or even 3 months to get it looking right, reason for liking Bigcommerce, as upgrading is simple and can do this when I want to and need to. So a small loss but a worth while loss.

Again thank you for your feedback.

jahmoo

 

[JMRidley]

Hi Jahmoo, We've been using Bigcommerce since 2010 for our online business and we love it. Only negative really is that recently it seems as though they are offering additional functionality via integrations with 3rd party products rather than by developing their core product. Some of the 3rd party integrations are great but can add up to quite a bit extra per month if you sign up to a few of them. There are some, such as the one that tailors the category menu depending on what page the user is viewing, that come as standard with other solutions. Having said that though, I haven't seen any other product that I'd rather use than BC.

 

[jamieclick]

This is just my advise so please don't shoot me down people, we're all friends here ;-)

I would really stay away from pay monthly sites for a few reasons.

1, You don't own the site. The con's of this are that if the company were to go bust (no reason they would but we've seen some big companies going!) then you will lose everything.
2, Ok, it is cheaper to get up and running with a site like this but work it out over time. Lets go with big commerce's lowest package (and this might not be big enough for you) you pay $25 a month. So around £16. So over 3 years you pay nearly £600 and this is without any adons you may need along the way. What have you really got, still not a great deal as you still don't own that website.
3, If there is a feature you need after them 3 years for instance and there is no way at all of it being avaliable on the platform once again, that's it. You ahve to start again and get a site built with the feature you need/want.

There are more cons (and pros I am sure I will get told ;-) ) but if you get a site built from the off using a well known platform then you will not come across these issues. My favored platform is OpenCart but there are many more out there and the only limitations you have are the developer working on it.........

Just a little thought and sorry for going on a bit :-D

Jamie

 

[Tech4Homes]

This is just my advise so please don't shoot me down people, we're all friends here ;-)

I would really stay away from pay monthly sites for a few reasons.

1, You don't own the site. The con's of this are that if the company were to go bust (no reason they would but we've seen some big companies going!) then you will lose everything.
2, Ok, it is cheaper to get up and running with a site like this but work it out over time. Lets go with big commerce's lowest package (and this might not be big enough for you) you pay $25 a month. So around £16. So over 3 years you pay nearly £600 and this is without any adons you may need along the way. What have you really got, still not a great deal as you still don't own that website.
3, If there is a feature you need after them 3 years for instance and there is no way at all of it being avaliable on the platform once again, that's it. You ahve to start again and get a site built with the feature you need/want.

There are more cons (and pros I am sure I will get told ;-) ) but if you get a site built from the off using a well known platform then you will not come across these issues. My favored platform is OpenCart but there are many more out there and the only limitations you have are the developer working on it.........

Just a little thought and sorry for going on a bit :-D

Jamie

I couldn't agree more, I'm on EKM Powershop and it served a purpose and got me going, but I do wish I found Opencart sooner!! Working hard to get the sites transferred over and majorly improved before leaving the paid for monthly versions. Not much fun having to add everything for the second time

 

[Rachel S]

I think affiliate marketing is a great source for eCommerce. I prefer this strategy than others because this is very effective and without a big contribution you get more success from here. Hope you will try out with your partner.

Thank you !!!
Rachel !!!

 

[antropy]

I do wish I found Opencart sooner!

Yep, take a look at OpenCart!

 

[SidRhyes]

Ecommerce is something that consists of all kinds of shopping cart and product and catalog related services and solutions.

 

[antropy]

Ecommerce is something that consists of all kinds of shopping cart and product and catalog related services and solutions.

Well now we know

 

[dx3webs]

Putting your effort into a self hosted cart will be well worth it in the long run. It will only be a short time before you need feature X or Y and you will be locked into a proprietary system.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I would suggest you download a copy of Sellerdeck which although paid for offers a buy it now package that offers many upgrades without the need for developers, also supported by a great forum

www.sellerdeck.co.uk

 

[Lukasz Jaskolski]

For the future ..

Before you choose the company, think about what your goal?

What elements should be found at all depends on the goal you want to achieve. Elements website must support its goals.

Whether your goal is to:
- Collect e-mail addresses
- entry new users
- Increase sales
- Traffic
... etc.

Then how to know the answers to these questions you can search store your hosting company

 

[alexlhh]

why not prestashop, best ecommerce solution for starters.

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Personally none of those, as they do not validate to a world wide web standard. This is an important factor in how the search engines look at your site, although not the overriding one. The main thing is to look at your objectives. Also, look at carts which are fully supported and which offer a modular build. £20 a carts don't cut it!
If you want to make money online you need to look at the entire model - design, development, online marketing and promotion. Understand that most markets are very competitive and that people are very fussy and also knowledgable when it comes to using an e-commerce site these days. Any flaws will likely result in you not getting a sale, regardless of the traffic you bring to the site. Work out your strategy and think about how much time you want to spend administering a site, and how easy your chosen platform is to assist in that. Before you make a choice checkout the World Wide Web Consortium Validator with the partner you are looking at - http://validator.w3.org oh and also understand that around 15-20% of your traffic can come through mobile devices, so make the site mobile friendly - you could loose a huge audience if you don't

 

[Ezymobiles]

SHOPIFY all day long!!

The large selection of bulk Applications means you can add features with no programming skills needed at all!

The support is great!

 

[DPOM]

Quite a few of our clients seem to like using bluepark or EKM powershop - the former being the most popular out of the two

Don't forget to look into Product Listing Ads (Google AdWords)

 

[Websitehandyman]

I would say you have asked a question and for 70% of the time that question would not be abled to be answered on the information given. So all those claimng this and that are the next thing since sliced bread should be ignored.

You need to get down a list of the things you need from a shopping cart. You could look at the features of existing shopping carts making notes on the feature you have to have, those you might like and those you don't need.

You then should try to determine how much you will sell and what profit you'll make in the first 12 month should you sell that amount. Adjust those figures by atleast 50%

By this time you should have a fair idea of what work is involved in hosting and maintaining your own site and shopping cart. If you feel you could cope then rule out all but the online service that provide a full shopping cart service.

If you feel you could cope do a simple value v feature comparision on the shopping cart applications.

I'm assuming it's a small shop or under 20,000 products. If so the hosting side should not cost more then £150 a year and could be as little as £20.

 

[Poppy Design]

As a designer I have used a few systems (clients sometimes tell me which one they want to use!).

Bigcommerce is a good system - it is US based - as a developer customising the code I sometimes find it a bit slow and prefer to work on my own server but my clients have been happy with their sites - it offers a free 15 day trial so why not try it out and see if you like it?
Yes you have to pay a small monthly fee but remember you will get all the latest updates (without the hassle of having to DIY this) and free telephone and email support direct to you.

Opencart - just started using this and I like it - so you could give the basics a go (perhaps your web host offers a free install via the cpanel hosting) and if you like get a designer to customise to suit you.

 

[Rachel S]

Whether you are starting a new business or already have a brick and mortar store that you're ready to take online, here are 5 key things to consider before starting.

1. Choose a Good Web Site Address
2. Select the Right Shopping Cart Software
3. Apply For a Merchant Account to Accept Credit Cards
4. Design Your Online Store to be User Friendly
5. Secure Your Online Store for Safe Transactions
6. Promote Your New Store

Your online business won't succeed if customers can't find it when searching the Internet. Consider buying sponsored ads on search engines like Google® and Yahoo!® for quick recognition. This program is called pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. You also need to make the search engines can find your Web site in order to rank your Web in the search results when a user enters a keyword related to your product or service. This is known as search engine visibility, search engine optimization or SEO.

Thanks

Rachel !!!

 

[Davidcooper]

I highly recommend to stay away from Volusion. I had the worst experience with them. Set up was complicated, and the after service they provide is non existent. Any time I had an urgent problem, it took them days to reply to emails. I would not recommend them to anyone.

 

[jahmoo]

Hi Guys and Gals,

A Big thank you to you all for taking the time out to post a reply, giving me your experience that you have gained, it's appreciated.

I have not decided on what to do as of yet, as have been sorting the name of the company and the design of the company logo, I have just made the purchase of the website Domaine.

I have also getting the first handful of products on board, so opened a couple of accounts with some Manufacturers I know well and feel its moving forward at a good pace, although not decided on what to do as to the website, well after all your replies, it's giving me some extra things to think about, key issues as well, so again, Thank you.

I will keep you all posted on my/our venture soon, as I will now speak to a web designer to get his feedback before making the decision on which way to go.

 

[dealmaker2013]

There are dozens of ways to get going with building an online store, but as has been said building a successful store is more than just finding a cart or software to add products to.

You need the domain name and hosting plus an overall website with shopping cart. Many of the web hosting companies offer installs of software such as Drupal, Wordpress, Magento, Joomla, Prestashop, Zencart and more which can easily be installed directly to your domain and there are tons of free resources to help you build the sites so this may be a decent way to start and it will not cost a great deal either as you just pay for the domain and hosting.

Hope this helps

 

[alex richardson]

Hey,
In terms of ecommerce software, anyone that knows me will tell you I am an interspire junkie! I would swear by the software and created many a drop shipping sites with it.

Sadly, interspire is no longer available as a standalone piece of kit, it is now a hosted solution called bigcommerce, which was in your original post so I would certainly recommend using them, as they are awesome to seo too.

As for marketing the products, I am an advocate for ppc as that's how I make my entire living, I would also recommend product launches and affiliates for some quick and easy(ish) cash.

Need anything else just yell...

 

[jahmoo]

Bigcommerce will be my first test, will try the 15day trial and then go from there. I will pop back with the site details when up and running.

Thank you all again for your feedback, I am having to go the cheapest now way ahead for me.

Appreciated

 

[COSMOBULL]

Hi there,

It is one thing getting your website up and running but we all have to contend with one element called "stickyness"
Basically, how long can you hold your viewers attention and get them to buy or look at the offer you are making.

I found this solution at Virtualpresentations.skoopster.net It is actually very straightforward and simple, quite brilliant actually.
I would be interested to hear everybody's reaction .
Regards,
Cosmo Bull